David Parfitt - 2-8-2006 at 09:45 AM
"Sweet is the music of Arabia.....
Hear her strange lutes on the green banks
Ring loud with the grief and delight
Of the dim - silked, dark haired musicians
In the brooding silence of night"
"Arabia" by De la Mare.
THE SULTAN AND THE QUEEN - Lute music from Baghdad and Europe.
HOLYWELL MUSIC ROOM, OXFORD
. SUNDAY FEBRUARY 19th, 7.30pm.
Ahmed Mukhtar - oud
Lynda Sayce - Lute.
Al Oud, referred to as the "Sultan" of instruments in the Arab world and the "Queen" of instruments in Europe is reputed to date back to the 3rd
century BC in Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilisation. Baghdad (meaning "Godgiven") was founded here in AD 762. During its commercial height in the
8th and 9th centuries when it was an important trade route between the East and the West it was the richest and most beautiful city in the world. This
was the city of "The Thousand and One Nights" where "melodious strains of the lute....mingled with the choirs of birds warbling hymns to Allah in
various tongues and tunes; curlews and pigeons, merles and bulbuls and Turtle-doves".
The oud spread to Europe during the 8th century Moorish invasion of Spain and the great cities of Andalucia were filled with the most sophisticated
music in Europe. In one of the famous "Tales of The Alhambra", "the extraordinary power of the lute became everyday more and more apparent.The
wayfarer passing by the tower was detained and spellbound in breathless ecstasy. The very birds gathered in the neighbouring trees and, hushing there
own strains, listened in charmed silence....the inhabitants of Granada thronged to The Alhambra to catch a few notes of the transcendant music that
floated about the tower of Las Infantas".
The lute spread to mainland Europe in the 14th century via the East West trade routes through Venice. Initially a melodic instrument, the change from
plectrum playing to plucking with the fingers gave the lute full chromatic command of polyphony and helped to make it the defining instrument of the
European Renaissance.
AHMED MUKHTAR was born in 1967 in Baghdad where he studied the oud at The Institute of Fine Arts. He continued his studies in Damascus and London. He
has performed and lectured all over the world. He has frequently appeared on the BBC and he gave his first Purcell Room recital on The South Bank last
Summer. Ahmed has also composed music for a new Iraqi-European version of Stravinsky's "The Soldier's Tale" that will be produced at The Old Vic at
the end of January 2006.
"Mukhtar extracts magic - he can make it (the oud) dream, gallop or thunder". Michael Church - The Independant.
LYNDA SAYCE studied at Oxford and at The Royal College of Music and is one of the UK's leading lutenists. She regularly appears internationally with
leading ensembles including The Academy of Ancient Music and The King's Consort. As a scholar she has contributed articles to Early Music and the
Revised New Grove Dictionary of Music.
And what happened to that lute in The Alhambra? It was "carried off, as was supposed, by the great singer Farnelli in pure jealousy. At his death it
passed into other hands in Italy where the strings were transferred to an old Cremona fiddle. That fiddle is now bewitching the whole world - it is
the fiddle of Paganini!" "Tales of The Alhambra" by Washington Irving.
Ahmed Mukhtar
http://www.amukhtar.com
0044(0)7958747917
oud4u@yahoo.com
DJCrabtree - 2-9-2006 at 03:20 AM
Hi David
I assume you'll be going to this. If you are, have a good one - it promises to be a bit special.
All the best
David